Ethan… Esther… Chaim
In the seventh episode of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4, Midge gushes to Susie over a handsome man she’s been bumping into in the park. Things have been going great, and eventually the pair end up hooking up. Midge reflects on how she hasn’t been as spontaneous as she perhaps should be and needs to do more of this going forward. ..
Midge’s story has a twist. She had an affair with the married man and when his wife showed up, she high-tailed it out. This is relevant because Midge tells Susie, the wife of the married man, that she wants her dress back. ..
Abe is faced with an Irish woman named Molly, who demands he talk to his wife and stop Rose’s matchmaking. Abe hightails it out, afraid to be ganged up on by these intimidating women.
Midge meets Joel but he’s flustered. When she finds out he has a baby, Midge isn’t exactly happy. Miriam reminds him that this is going to affect her life a lot and worries about his ties with Mei. When she learns Joel’s parents haven’t even met Mei yet, and they’re on the verge of getting married and having a baby, Joel pleads with his ex-wife to stay quiet while he figures this out.
Susie’s business is up and this time she brings good news to Miriam. She has managed to get a 1000-seat gig in Croatia, Zagreb. Miriam passes up this gig though, refusing to fly over to Croatia as she wants to be big on the “western hemisphere.” Susie exasperates and tells her there isn’t a better gig she can get for her.
Midge is on her way out of her office when she runs into Frank and Nicky. They offer to help her find out more information about Mei. Midge initially refuses, but eventually she succumbs to curiosity and agrees. Not only that, but at the club she’s offered a lucrative job from Gloria. There’s a big New York fundraiser coming up called “Wives for Kennedy” and none other than Jackie Kennedy is throwing it. Miriam is urged not to say anything dirty and needs to be careful.
That night, things escalated and took a turn for the worse. Miriam headed out to support Alfie’s first gig, but Susie was worried about the audience. With no booze and the acoustics all wrong, she was a bag of nerves. ..
Alfie hypnotizes Miriam into doing a gig from the strip club, and she ends up doing more stand-up than Miriam has the entire season. This is hilarious and tragic, as Rose does more stand-up than Miriam has in the entire season.
After the match, Miriam confronts Rose and ask why she hasn’t bothered to tell her she was at the Wolford. Rose shrugs it off, claiming that she was curious about Miriam’s act and wanted to see it in the flesh. She’s depressed about her matchmaking gig but Miriam encourages her to keep fighting, given she’s happier now than she has been in years.
Back home, a spooked Frank appears at Miriam’s door and tells her he’s not looking into Mei anymore. He implores Miriam not to tell anyone what they’ve done and that Mei’s family are dangerous. The sort of dangerous that would see them killed.
Jackie Kennedy’s job as a hostess for Miriam is going well until Miriam mentions the cheating story from the start of the episode. Given what we know about JFK and his ties with Marilyn Monroe, the whole thing goes completely awry. Jackie bursts out crying, the place is lost in a sea of stunned silence, and Midge is left twiddling her thumbs up on stage. She’s messed up again.
Susie heads out for lunch with Dinah where a stand-up happens to be rambling, a guy by the name of James. Susie sees potential and catches up with him backstage, giving him some solid advice. Susie even offers to manage him for six months. What starts as a difficult conversation about firing Dinah, turns into a big business opportunity so Susie decides to keep her on as a secretary after all.
As the episode ends, Miriam settles in for the night where she notices Lenny Bruce on TV, asking for people to come and watch his show. It’s clear she’s feeling sentimental toward him and contemplates going.
Joel, feeling brave, decides to talk to Moishe about Mei and what’s been going on with him. As they chat at the bar, Moishe suddenly collapses. ..
The Episode Review
I found it amusing that until Jackie Kennedy’s gig, Rose has done more stand-up this season than Miriam has. Maybe it’s just me, but the series about a stand-up comedian without much in the way of stand-up doesn’t quite work. The earlier seasons flowed effectively because Miriam riffed on her day to day life and we saw her thoughts and ideas transcribed into quirky comedy that allowed her to thrive. ..
The show has been good so far, but I feel like the actual plot is not moving forward and there is a lack of focus.
It’s been a little questionable that Miriam didn’t take the job in Croatia. I know it’s a fair distance and not ideal but given her whole shtick this year has been about clawing her way back to the top and proving herself, sacrificing to make it big seems like a much more worthwhile plot than rejecting this outright.
Jackie Kennedy quickly lands a lucrative job with Jackie’s former husband, John F. Kennedy, but quickly falls into trouble. Despite being told to keep things clean, she ends up breaking protocol and leaking sensitive information to the press.
This season has not been as strong as what we’ve seen before, but Miriam seems to be having some trouble getting her act together. It’s possible that this is because she’s been given too much free reign and not enough support from her team. Either way, it seems like she needs someone to tell her why she’s been struggling and give her a push in the right direction. Who knows, one day maybe Miriam will come out on top.
